Echelon
Echelon is an Inkling - one of the alien species who appeared in Locksmouth from the world of Canvas. Background At one time, countless years ago, Echelon was a high-ranking enforcer in Empress Osoth's army. Acting as the right hand of the tyrannical dictator, Echelon played a large part in Osoth's history of invading countless planets for the sole purpose of providing the Inklings' most basic need: living, breathing hosts for the symbiotic race to inhabit. Under Osoth's command, the Inklings spread far throughout the galaxy and inhabited a tremendous number of creatures to forcefully ensnare them into the Empress's control. Echelon had joined with numerous hosts to help serve this purpose, but the joining was a taxing process on the hosts' physical and mental capacities. After a long enough struggle, the host body would waste away, forcing Echelon - among other Inklings - to find a new host. Osoth's growing ambitions eventually exceeded simply keeping her race alive - she lusted for control. Pushing Echelon and her other Generals to inhabit more worlds caused countless deaths by their hands. It became a pattern. Echelon's eyes opened to it all, the death, the destruction, the crumbling of civilizations, and to Osoth's outstretched hands manipulating her strings to fulfill such a sinister purpose. Echelon had caused the death of more harmless, innocent creatures than she dared to remember, and she'd had enough. Realizing that Osoth's aim was not to live but to conquer, Echelon turned against her ruler. She was crushed, like so many cultures before her. Osoth defeated Echelon soundly, but grew to enjoy the conflict, the added challenge of being opposed. In defeating Echelon, she would break her mind while keeping her body intact. But even in doing so, Echelon would rekindle her rebellious spark and rise again. Each time she was defeated and cast aside, a gradually emptying shell of her former self. Just as any creature struggled against the Inklings' influence, Echelon found herself tiring of more failed attempts than she could possibly remember. Eventually, Echelon and the others she helped to inspire (Arus, Mhend, Koralo and Phactys) momentarily ceased their assaults. They realized without more capable and not-already-encountered hosts, they were powerless to stand against the Empress's force, of which spanned over hundreds, if not thousands of former civilizations. They fled, continuing their fight by arriving onto planets before Osoth could in order to try and mount a pre-emptive counter-attack. The trend did not change. Osoth would still defeat them. It was only by chance that Echelon and her allies would land on Earth. It was just another in the long line of worlds Osoth would eventually find. But having fought and lost so many battles before, Echelon knew not why she was there. Acting on instinct, she joined with her new host, Natalie Grayswift. Broken and weak, she slept soundly in the girl for years... until one day many years later, when Empress Osoth would arrive again, beginning what was known as The Locksmouth Incident. Invasion Echelon's first confused moments of lucidity within the mind and body of Natalie Grayswift were riddled with amnesia. A near-death experience fighting Gatemaker Parthal knocked Natalie unconscious and put her in a lucid dream-state, whereupon Echelon watched her from the other side of a mirror, not understanding her own connection to them but feeling a strong link nonetheless. Upon confrontation, Natalie was very distrustful due to a nightmare the previous night featuring a color-swapped doppelganger of Echelon who had threatened to kill her- the product of of Osoth and Laibon's combined broadcasted efforts creating such a nightmare to sow general fear and distrust of inklings. Though she tried to joke and be genial, the girl's first impressions of Echelon were not positive. Following this and a short conversation through reflections in the real world, she decided to lay dormant and try to remember her past. When Carrie was overcome with attacking monsters just outside the Climate Control Station, they unloaded their inklings onto her in an attempt to psychologically disarm her. Echelon bade Natalie to let her take over her hand, inking it and pressing it to the cat's forehead. What followed was an unconventional psychological battle for Carrie's identity, culminating in the awakening of Echelon's friend and ally, Arus. After expelling the Greys from Carrie and gaining a bit more of both girls' trust, they were called upon to show themselves before Carrie and Natalie's parents who had called to make sure they had made it. Arus and Echelon, along with Captain Comet, promised to keep them safe. Shelly Iverson showed herself and took refuge with the group, at which point they were attacked by General Laibon, who assaulted them with a force of Chompers. It was at this point that Echelon's powers took hold actively, allowing Natalie to tap into Jacent's powers via his borrowed arm bracers. It was only after the battle, when Samantha needed urgent medical help, that the nature of her powers became clear and Natalie used them to heal her friend. While sleeping in the refugee camp at Park Circle, Arus and Echelon shared a dreamspace with Carrie, Natalie and Jacent, whereupon they took time to explain their origins as well as their reasons for rebelling. A while after awakening, Gatemaker Parthal acted as a strengthening beacon for Osoth's influence, driving Emnas, Floe and Vissage to openly attack Echelon's forces, and after seeing that they were defeated, directly taking on the weakened Carrie and Natalie. Having at first been waylaid trying to help with evacuation efforts, Jacent fought Parthal to a stand-still, and together with the help of Coul and Alliston, Natalie used Echelon's abilities to construct a trap which defeated her. Heading back to the group's unofficial headquarters at the Burger Dictator, Echelon began to notice that working together had made her more prana-efficient and smoothed several functions between her and her host. However, she ran afoul of Kei's inkling Animis, and then Osoth directly, which led in a one-sided conflict that badly wounded Natalie. Understanding the problems Osoth's fear campaign presented, Natalie began a two-pronged plan of attack: Rescuing the populace, and building a machine that would suppress Osoth's violent influence in inklings. During the course of this, they met Kelvalde, host to Tempus who explained the larger mythos and history behind the Inked, and gained a new headquarters in Penceworth Estates, an apartment building Kelvalde owned. In the final leg of the quest to build the SCIFI, a revenge-seeking Parthal battled Max and Natalie on top of the Fabricatory. This wore on Natalie, whose will to fight waned with pain, exhaustion and fatigue to the degree that she began doubting herself entirely. Dreamless Urgai took advantage of Natalie falling asleep to push her into sleepwalking far from her friends and placed her into a constructed dream world with the intent to convince her that her entire life up to that point had been a fantasy constructed by the psychological therapy device she'd been in as a child. Locked away from Echelon and forced to face how absurd her life had become, Natalie nearly broke under the stress of the ideas presented to her. However, a minor mistake by Urgai made Natalie doubt the story long enough to try getting in contact with Echelon again, after which they liberated themselves from the dream construction, dominated Urgai, awakened and escaped to the safety of Natalie's now empty home. Having shared their moment of mutual triumph together, Natalie rediscovered her sense of purpose and reinforced her deep bond with Echelon, allowing the inkling to do something none had done before: go 'Dry.' The ability to exist independently of one's host in the physical world without fear of being torn apart by the forces of three dimensional space moved Echelon greatly, and reinforced her closeness with Natalie. After this, they were lead back by Kelvalde to Penceworth Estates, which had become a safe haven thanks to the successful construction of the SCIFI. Echelon's forces worked to rescue as many people as possible, placing them in the safe area of Penceworth Estates and battling Osoth's forces where they appeared. After amassing enough, they found Osoth's forces working to make one final push to eradicate all resistance, having already defeated what was left of the New Locksmouth Militia. A battle with Animis, then Laibon preceded the ultimate showdown with Osoth, who used overwhelming power and even Lorna Grayswift's knowledge of technology to subdue them. In the end, it was Natalie and Echelon who ended up defeating Osoth for the very first time. Echelon vacated Natalie, taking her close fellows with her as well as Osoth's core back to Canvas, leaving an emotional farewell message to Natalie and the Earth. Abilities Echelon is many things. Strategist, warrior, rebel leader, and one of few to stare into the abyss of fear that is Empress Osoth without losing her nerve. As an Elite Inkling, she holds a special ability - Mimicry. By a simple touch, she can replicate the inherant abilities of creatures around her, including other Inklings. By sharing this ability with Natalie, she allowed the girl to mimic things such as Arus's tensile invulnerability, or Cap'n Comet's Kinetic Telekenises. She is unable to mimic abilities perfectly, and thus grants slightly weaker variants. Not only limited to simply touching creatures, if she touches an object that someone used, she can absorb their aptitude in using that object. Category:Characters Category:Inked Category:Heroes